Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Kioma.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of New Guinea Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens hawkeri, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name Kioma.
The new Impatiens is a product of a planned breeding program Inventor in Gensingen, Germany. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new Impatiens cultivars with interesting and unique flower and foliage colors.
The new Impatiens originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in October, 1998 of the Impatiens hawkeri cultivar Lucine, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 6,831, as the female, or seed parent, with a proprietary Impatiens hawkeri selection identified as 97-087, not patented, as the male, or pollen parent. The cultivar Kioma was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Gensingen, Germany in March, 1999.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken at Gensingen, Germany, since May, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Kiomaxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Kiomaxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Impatiens cultivar:
1. Rounded, upright and compact plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit; bushy appearance.
3. Variegated foliage.
4. Freely flowering habit with flowers held above and beyond the foliage.
5. Red purple-colored flowers.
Plants of the new Impatiens are most similar to plants of the female parent, the cultivar Lucine. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in Gensingen, Germany, plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Lucine in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens were more compact than plant of the cultivar Lucine.
2. Plants of the new Impatiens were more freely branching than plants of the cultivar Lucine.
3. Plants of the new Impatiens were more freely flowering than plants of the cultivar Lucine.
4. Leaves of plants of the new Impatiens were more strongly variegated than leaves of plants of the cultivar Lucine.
Plants of the new Impatiens differ from plants of the male parent, the selection 97-087, primarily in flower color as flower color of plants of the new Impatiens does not fade whereas the flower color of plants of the selection 97-087 fades with subsequent development.